Abstract
Leisure time marketing is a big concern and an effective field of study in today's business environment due to the fact that emerging trends and applications may be applied. In this chapter, the concept of leisure time marketing is being revealed as well as its importance to marketers. Evidence from literature is included in this manner. In addition, several initiatives and implications have been debated by the putting the main focus on theory and practice of leisure time activities. Emerging marketing aspects and strategies are introduced as a means to satisfy the need of the target market in this field of study. Competitive dimensions of leisure time marketing are also noted in an attempt to meet the goal of exceeding the expectations of the market and its dynamics. Finally, a leisure time marketing categorization model is discussed.
TopBackground
Based on the comments of Horner and Swarbrooke, leisure time marketing has been an issue of interest in the last one thousand years. This may imply that leisure time marketing has been the oldest field of study in the general marketing perspective. This may be cited as true since everyone of us has leisure time in their lives. As leisure time per person is on the increase, there is more potential for the growth of the market. The authors also state that the services industry is likely to grow faster when compared to the growth of production and manufacturing industry (Horner and Swarbrooke, 2005, p.22). This may arise due to the fact that every community and consumer group needs services even though there is a good amount of production and manufacturing. In this globe, it should be noted that products, in that sense manufacturing, must be accompanied with the emergence and transmittance of services.
Michael Morgan, on the other side, states that there are key priorities of how a leisure time marketing strategy can be carried out (Morgan and Pritchard, 2001, p.7) and (Morgan,1996, p.3). He states that the four aspects of leisure time marketing process should be monitored and implemeneted as means to target teh niche aspects of how the strategy can be utilized. In this context, the author focuses on some of the vital concerns in regards to the successful implementation of the marketing programs that should and would be sponsored as a tool to reach success in social media and classical media activities. The author, in this approach, claims that there are four distinct characteristics of leisure time marketing. It should be clarified that all these mentioned aspects of leisure time marketing has direct collaboration with the existence of services marketing aspects of the marketing trends. In other terms, leisure time marketing setting in many industries is highly correlated with the acceptance and interrelation with the services industry features and the growth within the services industries are known to highly arise and ocur from the existing services marketing strategies that have already been implemented in certain industries. The next section of this chapter will highly deal with such attempts in more detail, so that en effective leisure time marketing strategy can be utilized in an attempt to reach company profitability while utilizing maximum satisfaction and loyalty in the eyes of the consumers and the public audience. Besides, the leisure time devoted to the consumers is on the rise.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Holistic Approach: A marketing/management perspective where all the strategies are being combined as a whole in order to meet the specific targets.
Goal Oriented Marketing Tactics: Short term decisions generated by the marketing experts in order to satisfy the target market’s needs/wants by achieving certain tasks and obligations in terms of pricing/impulse buying and so forth.
Entertainment Management: The managerial tools and applications that are being utilized and promoted to meet the needs and wants of the individuals who are actively involved in the entertainment industry by managing them effectively while being efficient on the corporate side.
Social media: A non-traditional platform of media which is digitalization oriented whereby an immediate interactive response that is two-sided can be revealed which promotes a high level of involvement on behalf all the parties that are enrolled in the process.
Leisure Time: Time that is left out to the individual when all the obligations in terms of work and mandatory activities have fully been achieved.
Cultural Values: Various norms and trends that emerge constantly from the group effect which in returns creates a set of belief and common understanding perceptions.
Experiential marketing: The establishment and appraisal process of a marketing plan through positive or negative experiences being retrieved as a means to implement the tactics/strategies on a solid experience thereof.